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BADMINTONscotland step up Para- initiatives

BADMINTONscotland’s focus over the coming months is rightly on next month’s Scottish Open Grand Prix and the TOTAL BWF World Championships 2017 next August.

But the countdown to badminton’s first appearance at the Paralympics in Japan in 2020 has ensured that the national governing body is also giving close attention to disability sport.

Already Scotland’s Alan Oliver (Tweedbank) has been named in the GB squad preparing for the Paralympics and Alan will be joined by Fraser Michie at the Parabadminton Conference from 21-23 October in Holland.

Lyndon Williams will be the head tutor for the coaching conference, which will be dealing specifically with high performance coaching, and Kaity Hall will be assisting with the course as well as leading the development session.

Kaity will also be with the Scotland squad competing in the European Para-Badminton Championships from 26-30 October. The Scotland squad is:

SL3 men’s singles: Alan Oliver (Tweedbank), Colin Leslie (Dalkeith), Niall Jarvie (Crieff) SL4 men’s singles: David Purdie (Largs) SL3/4 men’s doubles: David Purdie & Colin Leslie, Niall Jarvie & Stephen Halpin (Ireland), Alan Oliver & Anthony Forrester (England) SL3-SU5 mixed doubles: Alan Oliver & Julie Thrane (Denmark) SS6 men’s singles: Bobby Laing (Livingston) SS6 women’s singles: Deirdre Nagle (Kilmarnock) SS6 men’s doubles: Bobby Laing & Isaak Dalglish (England) SS6 mixed doubles: Bobby Laing & Deirdre Nagle WH2 women’s singles: Fiona Christie WH1/2 women’s doubles: Fiona Christie & Laura-Lee Jenkins (Ireland) WH1/2 mixed doubles: Owen Kilburn (England) & Fiona Christie

Kaity and Fraser were in Dubai earlier this week for a Coach Tutoring course. They were there teaching coaches about classifications, coaching both grass roots and performance, looking into the differences in able bodied and para coaching and practical sessions with players of different classifications.

BADMINTONscotland’s Big Hit Festivals for schoolchildren also extends to Para- Badminton with ASN schools staging Festivals in Milburn earlier this week and in Fife on 11 November with a Festival in Angus earmarked for early next year.

Clackmannanshire has already staged a large Festival in September when Kaity and national squad players Colin Leslie, Alan Oliver, Bobby Laing and David Purdie led the session. The players also helped out in the Big Hit session aimed for beginners before entering the fun singles and doubles tournament.

Many of them will also be involved in the Para-badminton workshop to be held during the Scottish Open Grand Prix (23-27 November) and there will also be a Para-badminton festival on Scottish Open Thursday.

The New Year will start with an SDS LDBC Competition at Herriot Watt University on the 28 January followed by the annual Scottish 4 Nations Championships from 17-19 February.

Kaity said: “Over the next year we will continue with national training as well as hopefully development squad progress to identify potential Team Scotland athletes.”

BADMINTONscotland Chief Executive Anne Smillie said: “We are grateful to coaches like Kaity for the work they do for Para-Badminton and it is exciting to see so many initiatives being planned as we look forward to the Paralympics and our sport’s inclusion for the first time.”

Article by: BADMINTONscotland Press Office